Had
everything gone smoothly, she would now be '
Ferris Ayumi'. These were the
names her
father and I chose for her, her
middle name being his choice, and her
first name, supposedly, mine. Of course, throughout our deliberations,
vetoes were allowed to a certain
point: he had
first suggested '
Lisa', since it is a viable name in both Japanese and English. However, as I had not (and still have not, most likely due to my own bad luck) encountered a Lisa that didn't make me
cringe, 'Lisa' was removed from the
running. I, on the other hand, had suggested
Meghan, but, since, when pronounced by a Japanese speaker, it sounds like '
cancer of the
eyes', this name, too, was removed from the
list. I do not exactly remember when the name 'Ferris' occurred to me, but when it did, it stuck in my mind with a
vengance. He, however, was not overly
thrilled with it; nor was I with his final choice, 'Ayumi', but we had both tired of the game by then and
concessions were made.
It makes me
wonder, had our
marriage been anything close to a '
normal' one, if he still would have entered 'Alexandra Ayumi' on her
birth certificate while I was
sedated after the
c-section... She has no idea that I ended up having no part in naming her, nor any
clue about what her name was to have been. I figure I will keep this bit of
bitterness to myself until I become '
grown up' enough to finally let it
die.
She has been, over the years, called by many nicknames:
as well as by variations on both of her names. I started out by calling her, exclusively, Ayumi. I have come to realize, however, that she will, as we all do
in the long run,
name herself. I call her whatever she wants to be called, and,
capricious 7-year-old that she is, it changes regularly.
After coming back from her
father's this last
weekend, and having watched
movies at her
friend's house, she requested that we start calling her 'Ferris'. Hurrah for the
rule of three, and, "Thank you,
Matthew Broderick."